FGNW NEWS

NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAYS BRINGS HUNDREDS OF COMMUNITY LEADERS TOGETHER IN TALLAHASSEE

Tallahassee, FL – This week, community leaders from the region’s 12 counties gathered in the State’s Capitol as a unified voice to showcase the unique attributes and economic impact of Northwest Florida, from the beaches and beyond. The event called Northwest Florida Days was hosted by the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals Northwest Florida Chapter, Florida’s Great Northwest, Opportunity Florida, Explore Northwest Florida, the Northwest Florida Tourism Council and Northwest Florida League of Cities.

“Between last night’s networking reception and this morning’s legislative appreciation breakfast, over 200 chamber professionals, tourism experts, economic developers, business owners and community leaders came to Tallahassee to celebrate the strong leadership we have in our 10 legislators representing Northwest Florida in our State’s Capitol,” said Jennifer Conoley, President & CEO of Florida’s Great Northwest and event co-host of Northwest Florida Days. “When we cross county lines and join forces as one region, we have a larger voice and make a greater impression on decision makers throughout the state of Florida.”

This year’s event included engagement opportunities with the following legislators of Northwest Florida’s delegation:

• Senator Doug Broxson, District 1
• Representative Michelle Salzman, District 1
• Representative Alex Andrade, District 2
• Representative Joel Rudman, District 3
• Representative Shane Abbott, District 5
• Representative Griff Griffitts, District 6
• Representative Jason Shoaf, District 7

To view the photo gallery, click here.

Northwest Florida Facts, Figures and Impacts

Northwest Florida’s Economic Impact:

• Gross Regional Product - GDP is the value of the goods and services produced in an economy, which Gross Regional Product (GRP) is simply GDP for the region of study.

1. GRP of Northwest Florida is $63,435,528,717.30 and the population of Northwest Florida is 1,143,168.

2. GRP of Florida is  $1,369,130,349,770.00 and the population of Florida: 21,987,243.

3. When comparing Northwest Florida to the state:

4. Northwest Florida represents 4.6% of Florida’s GRP.

5. Northwest Florida represents 5.1% of Florida’s population.

6. Northwest Florida residents produce 4.6% of Florida’s income relative to its 5.1% of state population make up.

Military Impact:

• With Northwest Florida’s six military installations, the Department of Defense expenditures in the region exceeded $10 billion in 2021.

• More than 186,689 jobs were also generated and accounted for over $21 billion of the region’s economy in 2021.

Tourism Impact:

• Travel and Tourism is a huge driver in our economy. In Florida, the industry supports nearly 13% of total employment and 10% of state GDP. In Northwest Florida, the share of regional employment in this industry sector is 22.4%.
• 153,000 jobs are linked to the tourism industry in the region along with $4 billion in wages.

• Tourism spending in Northwest Florida was at $10.2 billion in 2019.

• Source: https://www.visitflorida.org/media/30679/florida-visitor-economic-large-impact-study.pdf

Economic Development Impact & Existing Industry Highlights:

• Last year, 1,426 new, quality jobs were announced through economic development deals across the region.
• The largest wind turbine production facility in North America, GE Renewable Energy, is located in Pensacola.
• AppRiver, an OpenText company, based in Gulf Breeze is a channel-first provider of cloud-enabled security and productivity services, with a 4,500-strong reseller community that protects 60,000 companies worldwide against a growing list of dangerous online threats.
• Enviva, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, provides wood pellets to create clean energy all around the world and is located in Cottondale. Their products are shipped through Port Panama City to locations such as Western Europe to Japan.
• Eastern Shipbuilding Group, an innovator in marine construction and repair based in Panama City and Port St. Joe, was awarded a $10.5 billion contract by the US Coast Guard to build two dozen new U.S. Coast Guard cutters. This contract is the largest ever awarded in its 226-year history.

Research and Development Examples:

• Oglesby Plants International, Inc., headquartered in Altha, uses plant tissue culture technology for the large-scale propagation of valuable ornamental plants. The company is also well known for its breeding and development of new plants varieties particularity in the tropical plant groups. The company currently produces over 12 million plants per year consisting of 150 different varieties of ornamental plants, most proprietary to Oglesby.
• Eglin AFB conducts all research and development for air-delivered munitions for the Air Force and is focused on the weapon’s capability to operate with complete autonomy and with high accuracy in all weather conditions, day or night, using long- or short-range delivery tactics.
• McKinley Climatic Lab at Eglin AFB has the largest environmental chamber in the world that can simulate any climatic environment – extreme heat, cold, sand, dust, rain, sun, wind.
• Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola pioneers technologies aimed at leveraging and extending human capabilities, such as robotics, exoskeletons, cybersecurity, augmentics and more. Research partners include DARPA, NSF, NASA, the military, and many private sector businesses, such as IBM, Boeing, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin.
• Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze is a world-class institute for orthopedics and sports medicine focused on providing the best medical care for the musculoskeletal system, using the latest innovative clinical and surgical technologies, and to improve patient care through research and education.

For more information about Northwest Florida Days or the impacts of Northwest Florida to the state, please contact Kasey Killebrew at 334.790.4557 or kkillebrew@fgnw.org.